Author: Anthony Olszewski

Anthony Olszewski has written on a wide variety of topics: cage birds, tropical fish, popular culture, the poetry of Amiri Baraka and a chapter on genetics for a veterinary text book, as a small sample. He worked as an editor at a magazine produced by TFH, the world's largest publisher of pet books. Anthony Olszewski is the author of a booklet on Hudson County history, Hudson County Facts, and a book of short stories, Second Thief, Best Thief, that are sold on Amazon.
Anthony Olszewski established PETCRAFT.com in 1996. A pioneer on the Web, the Site continues to provide unique information on a range of companion animals, focusing on birds and fish.
As a community service, he operates Jersey City Free Books.
Anthony Olszewski was born in Jersey City, NJ (Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital, 1956) and is a member of Mensa.

Success isn’t to be expected for every effort, and that’s especially true for the first step on a new path. That certainly was so for Anthony Olszewski and animal rescue. When only in the third grade, he witnessed a bat being knocked off the side of a house by water from a hose. Young Anthony tried to save the bat. Sad to relate, the story did not have a happy ending for the winged mammal — and almost the same for its would-be helper. The bat quickly died of Rabies, but not before delivering a solid nip to a finger.

The boy got sent to Isolation at the old Jersey City Medical Center where — allergic to the vaccine — he experienced episodes of shock. His parents were told to expect him to die.
In the hospital, he used the bouts of near coma as opportunities for naps. He spent most of the rest of the time watching TV and drinking malteds. Perhaps the deep rest and relaxation was what enabled him to cheat death.

Going on to found Jersey City Free Books has not been as pleasant as a diagnosis of death by Rabies. Painful damage to the cartilage of a shoulder resulted from over-use injury caused by lifting heavy boxes. And too much of each and every day is spent worrying about getting the money to pay the bills . . .

Jersey City Free Books needs your help NOW! It’s quick and convenient to click on the Donate button at the Web Site. If everyone seeing this contributed ONE DOLLAR a month,staying afloat would not be a big question mark. Jersey City Free Books needs your help right NOW so that we can continue to serve seniors, students, the unemployed, working families and the entire community. Support reading. Support Jersey City Free Books.

Jersey City Free Books is a community organization that provides something to read without charge, obligation, registration or indoctrination. Everyone is welcome to take any number of books for their reasonable, personal use. Many books are available.

Jersey City Free Books is very happy to get old black and white photos — snapshots.

Do you have household items, small appliances or anything else still in the box that you’re never going to use? Please consider donating these items to Jersey City Free Books. We urgently need to raise funds. Anything that we can sell or use as a promotion for crowdfunding will be GREATLY appreciated!
Jersey City Free Books can also use these items:
* Picnic and card tables
* Metal shelves similar to the ones now in the shop.
* Clear plastic storage containers with lids
* Gigabyte switches
* Computers, cell phones or tablets less than four years old
(Either working or non-working — Secure removal and erasure of data is performed on all devices.)

Audio or video on CD or DVD is great. Vinyl records are OK, too. Tapes, we can’t take.

We currently can’t accept any more Mysteries, Thrillers, Romances or Self-help titles. Text books or computer books over three years old can’t be used by current students.
Jersey City Free Books can use donations of solid recent fiction and non-fiction, including text books less than three years old. Literary classics are always welcome. Children’s titles and books of all types in languages other than English are great, too.

Because of Jersey City Free Books, not having money doesn’t stop people from reading. A wide-distribution magazine recently listed us as a tourist destination! In addition to the local community, we’ve provided books for a school in the Philippines, a shelter in Camden, a mission in Africa and a student film in New York City. Jersey City Free Books is eager to assist local charities by providing quantities of books.

Here’s one of the more unusual animal rescues at Jersey City Free Books. Back on March 5, 2014 I found this white mouse running through the snow during a blizzard on the sidewalk of Kennedy Blvd. in Jersey City. As my eyesight is not the sharpest, the little guy’s guardian angel must have tapped me on the shoulder.

How did he wind up there? As a domestic mouse couldn’t survive for long in the cold, my guess is that some malicious person in the apartment house tossed him out the window.

His new name was Snow Ball. Since I didn’t want him to be saved from the cold only to wind up in a snake’s belly, Snow Ball found a home here. The accommodations included an exercise wheel and — his life’s joy — a cardboard tube from inside of a roll of paper towel. Snow Ball passed after sixteen months, a happy long life for a mouse.

Jersey City Cat Rescue has fostered infant squirrels and taken in a hamster put out with the garbage at the curb. We’ve cared for guinea pigs and gerbils that were no longer wanted. Homes also have been found for dwarf rabbits.

Jersey City Free Books serves the entire community — including those on four legs! We need your help so that we can help both pets and people. Click on this Link for the Amazon Wish List or use the DONATE button. That’s on the left for a computer screen or click the three horizontal bars if using a smart phone or tablet. Even just dropping off a bag of kitty litter (non-clumping) when the shop is open will mean a lot. If everyone reading this clicked on the DONATE button and gave ONE DOLLAR monthly, we’d be well on the way to providing for suffering cats left to fend for themselves.

Here’s Anthony Olszewski at age 3, meeting Captain Kangaroo. The youngster appears anxious because moments before a Gypsy fortune teller had read his palm. The foretold future was that he’d go on to open Jersey City Free Books. The vision continued that there’d be streams of visitors and messages all praising the effort, but few would donate and so the rent was to be unpaid.

The hard truth is that an infinity of kind words all add up to zero when it comes to scraping together the money for the bills. Jersey City Free Books is in dire need of real community support just to keep the door open.

Jersey City Free Books needs your help NOW! It’s quick and convenient to click on the Donate button at the Web Site. If everyone seeing this contributed ONE DOLLAR a month,staying afloat would not be a big question mark. Jersey City Free Books needs your help right NOW so that we can continue to serve seniors, students, the unemployed, working families and the entire community. Support reading. Support Jersey City Free Books.

Jersey City Free Books is a community organization that provides something to read without charge, obligation, registration or indoctrination. Everyone is welcome to take any number of books for their reasonable, personal use. Many books are available.

Jersey City Free Books is very happy to get old black and white photos — snapshots.

Do you have household items, small appliances or anything else still in the box that you’re never going to use? Please consider donating these items to Jersey City Free Books. We urgently need to raise funds. Anything that we can sell or use as a promotion for crowdfunding will be GREATLY appreciated!

Jersey City Free Books can also use these items:
* Picnic and card tables
* Metal shelves similar to the ones now in the shop.
* Clear plastic storage containers with lids
* Gigabyte switches
* Computers, cell phones or tablets less than four years old
(Either working or non-working — Secure removal and erasure of data is performed on all devices.)

Audio or video on CD or DVD is great. Vinyl records are OK, too. Tapes, we can’t take.

We currently can’t accept any more Mysteries, Thrillers, Romances or Self-help titles. Text books or computer books over three years old can’t be used by current students.
Jersey City Free Books can use donations of solid recent fiction and non-fiction, including text books less than three years old. Literary classics are always welcome. Children’s titles and books of all types in languages other than English are great, too.

Because of Jersey City Free Books, not having money doesn’t stop people from reading. A wide-distribution magazine recently listed us as a tourist destination! In addition to the local community, we’ve provided books for a school in the Philippines, a shelter in Camden, a mission in Africa and a student film in New York City. Jersey City Free Books is eager to assist local charities by providing quantities of books.

Here’s Joe the barber, Jersey City Free Books’ landlord, and this is what he has to say:
“All day long people bounce in here telling me how great it is what Jersey City Free Books is doing. All I wants to know is when is that outfit going to pay the rent?”

And Joe’s right. All the hale and hearty handshakes add up to nothing when it comes to scraping together the money for the bills. Jersey City Free Books is in dire need of real community support just to keep the door open.

Jersey City Free Books needs your help NOW! It’s quick and convenient to click on the Donate button at the Web Site. If everyone seeing this contributed ONE DOLLAR a month, staying afloat would not be a big question mark. Jersey City Free Books needs your help right NOW so that we can continue to serve seniors, students, the unemployed, working families and the entire community. Support reading. Support Jersey City Free Books.

Jersey City Free Books is a community organization that provides something to read without charge, obligation, registration or indoctrination. Everyone is welcome to take any number of books for their reasonable, personal use. Many books are available.

The current schedule is at “a href=”http://JerseyCityFreeBooks.com”>the Main Page of the Web Site.

Jersey City Free Books is very happy to get old black and white photos — snapshots.

Do you have household items, small appliances or anything else still in the box that you’re never going to use? Please consider donating these items to Jersey City Free Books. We urgently need to raise funds. Anything that we can sell or use as a promotion for crowdfunding will be GREATLY appreciated!
Jersey City Free Books can also use these items:
* Picnic and card tables
* Metal or wood shelves similar to the ones now in the shop.
* Clear plastic storage containers with lids
* Gigabyte switches
* Computers, cell phones or tablets less than four years old
(Either working or non-working — Secure removal and erasure of data is performed on all devices.)

Audio or video on CD or DVD is great. Vinyl records are OK, too. Tapes, we can’t take.

Jersey City Free Books needs donations of solid recent fiction and non-fiction, including text books less than three years old. Literary classics are always welcome. Children’s titles and books of all types in languages other than English are great, too.

We currently can’t accept any more Mysteries, Thrillers, Romances or Self-help titles. Text books or computer books over three years old can’t be used by current students.
Because of Jersey City Free Books, not having money doesn’t stop people from reading. A wide-distribution magazine recently listed us as a tourist destination! In addition to the local community, we’ve provided books for a school in the Philippines, a shelter in Camden, a mission in Africa and a student film in New York City. Jersey City Free Books is eager to assist local charities by providing quantities of books.

I only became interested in Marshall McLuhan relatively recently. Recently, I thought back to sophomore year in high school when a religion teacher — Fr. Stroud S.J. — often spoke of Marshall McLuhan. Doing a Google search, I was surprised to learn that Fr. Stroud was on of the last people to see McLuhan.

The Curtis and Kuby show riding on 50,000 watts of AM radio transmitter power — and the story of an alleged hit attempt by John Gotti (the son) — boasts of over 5,100 Facebook Likes. Jersey City Free Books chugging along in a storefront on a side street in Jersey City — and the tale of a family friend jailed for plotting to kill John Gotti (the father) — easily pulls ahead with over 5,900 Facebook likes!

AND THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING! The Jersey City Free Books Facebook Page does better than Joe Piscopo (3,347), Frank Morano (2,163) the radio stations AM 970 (3,072), WOR 710 (5,255) and even “One of America’s most listened to Radio/TV personalities, heard by over 16 million radio listeners a month” Mark Simone (4,819).

Jersey City Free Books at 297 Griffith St is a community book store that provides something to read without charge, obligation, registration or indoctrination. The shop is open Friday from 12 to 7, Saturday from 10 to 7 and Sunday from 12 to 6. Everyone is welcome to take any number of books for their reasonable, personal use. Many books are available.

Jersey City Free Books serves seniors, students, the unemployed and working families. A wide-distribution magazine recently listed us as a tourist destination! In addition to the local community, we’ve provided books for a school in the Philippines, a shelter in Camden, a mission in Africa and a student film in New York City.

Jersey City Free Books is eager to assist local charities by providing quantities of books.

Jersey City Free Books serves the entire community — including those on four legs! We need your help so that we can help both cats and people. Click on this Link for the Amazon Wish List or use the DONATE button. hat’s on the left for a computer screen or click the three horizontal bars if using a smart phone or tablet. Even just dropping off a bag of kitty litter (non-clumping) when the shop is open will mean a lot. If everyone reading this clicked on the DONATE button and gave ONE DOLLAR monthly, we’d be well on the way to providing for suffering cats left to fend for themselves.

I want to shout-out a BIG THANK YOU to someone very generous who has been sending a bag of Iams cat food each week. This has been a HUGE HELP!. I’ve been spending my own grocery money to buy food and medical care for the little crew. And I already was pretty skinny!

Jersey City Free Books serves the entire community — including those on four legs! We need your help so that we can help both cats and people. Click on this Link for the Amazon Wish List or use the DONATE button. hat’s on the left for a computer screen or click the three horizontal bars if using a smart phone or tablet. Even just dropping off a bag of kitty litter (non-clumping) when the shop is open will mean a lot. If everyone reading this clicked on the DONATE button and gave ONE DOLLAR monthly, we’d be well on the way to providing for suffering cats left to fend for themselves.

Script discovered! – the mashup musical of HAMILTON, CATS and VICTOR/VICTORIA !!!
“Homeless on the Grange”

based on an email, sent in 2011 …….

from: a Jersey City lady who lived in a cat zoo – she had so many cats that she couldn’t afford a new shoe (true)…

to: all cat rescue groups in New York City:
“Re: Homeless cat in possible danger

Last Saturday, I came from my home in New Jersey to attend the re-opening of the Hamilton Grange in St. Nicholas Park on 141st St. After my visit, I decided to take a walk up Hamilton Terrace. At about #**-**, I saw a black cat on the sidewalk who looked in bad shape – very thin, dull matted fur, a bare patch the size of a quarter on his rump, and as I recall, chewed up ears as if from fights. I stopped to offer him some cat food,* but he ignored it and kept walking south. I asked someone passing by if he knew who owned the cat, and he said, “He’s the block cat,” and to the effect, “Everyone knows him. He’s been here for years.”

A few seconds later, as I was wrapping up the food, a couple exited a car and were about to enter the house at – I’m 90% certain – #**, although it was possibly #**. The man approached and asked if I was feeding the cat. I understood him to mean on an ongoing basis, so I said no. He then started to complain about the cat’s existence on the block. I attempted twice to tell him about ACC, the Mayor’s Alliance, the ASPCA etc., but he cut me off, just interested in complaining, not in listening. I got the distinct impression that the couple were newcomers to the block. The man said he didn’t want anybody feeding the cat, in the hope that he would go elsewhere. He also said that when they walk their dog, the cat is (he trailed off, implying that the cat is somehow a problem. I assumed that the dog attempts to chase the cat). I bristled at their selfish attitude and responded that the cat had been there all his life (i.e., in contrast to the couple ). He said something else, then they went in the house, and I went on my way. I remained very upset that these people who have everything were willing to see a creature starve to death because of some minor (imagined?) inconvenience, even when a more humane solution was being proposed.

I fear that they might do something to harm this poor animal, and am writing to all Manhattan rescue groups on the Mayor’s Alliance list to see if someone could trap and possibly find him a home. I imagine he hangs out a lot in the churchyard behind St. Luke’s (corner of 141st and Hamilton Terrace), so perhaps the people there might know of him. Someone must be feeding him if he’s been around so long. I just hope I’m not too late in writing.

p.s. every organization seems overwhelmed with animals waiting for adopters or foster homes. I wonder if there is any current effort to get mandatory spay neuter in NYC. Or for that matter in NJ.”

[Postscript, written June 2016] A Queens cat rescuer responded at the time to the email, advising to take the cat to her vet connection in midtown Manhattan. “Cat’s name?” the vet asked. “We may as well name him Alexander.” We discovered later that he was Alexandra.

Glad some New Yorkers stepped in to help a fellow New Yorker in distress. Bringing a black cat, named after Alexander Hamilton, across the Hudson River and toward the Weehawken bluffs wouldn’t have seemed the most auspicious way to begin the cat’s new life. In the new musical, Alexander/ra Hamilton discovers her true identity, stays in NYC and lives happily ever after.